Doin' The Thing w/ Dillan Taylor
Doin' The Thing is a show for creators who want to build their content business better and faster. It's hosted by Dillan Taylor—certified life coach, writer, and CEO of Grindstone. He interviews top creators to share their biggest mistakes and lessons and tells stories from Grindstone, a coaching company for video creators.
Doin' The Thing w/ Dillan Taylor
How This Dad Built a 100K Chess Channel (w/ James Gardner) | 048
Dillan interviews James Gardner—the man behind Epic Chess.
James is a British YouTuber who’s built a comedic and high-skill chess analysis channel with over 100,000 subscribers. His videos blend educational game breakdowns, storytelling, and humor, making chess entertaining for enthusiasts and casual fans.
They discuss: how to build long-term success on YouTube without burning out, the power of storytelling in thumbnails and titles, the challenge of idea generation, finding your unfair advantages as a creator, monetization beyond AdSense, how to create consistently without losing your soul, and much more.
Epic Chess's links...
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@epicchess2021
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Follow Dillan on the interwebs...
Twitter / X: https://x.com/dillanroytaylor
Newsletter: https://www.grindstone.coach/newsletter
Apply for Grindstone Coaching: https://www.grindstone.coach/
Music by myboy.scoochy:
https://www.instagram.com/myboy.scoochy/
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0:00 Intro
1:04 Why James started Epic Chess
13:44 Breaking down the early Epic Chess channel
18:14 How James has improved his content over 3 years
27:24 The value of just getting started
30:05 When to push vs when to pivot
36:05 James’s creative system for posting every day
39:18 Why he makes the thumbnail first
40:19 Polished vs authentic content
46:09 Thumbnail strategies and AI tools
52:52 Sponsorships, revenue breakdown, and boundaries
1:04:41 Sustainable success and reframing burnout
1:15:41 Epic Chess links & Dillan's tattoo
1:19:06 Dillan vs. James blitz game
1:29:49 Bye bye bye
